Thursday, September 29, 2005

now breathe...

So decided that now that I’m feeling happier on the inside decided to be happier with my outside :) So last month and half not only the dieting that seems to be hand in hand with getting into wedding dresses…. I decided to actually get fitter.

Its been so long since I was fit so decided to start out slow. So a wonderful girlfriend of mine, Shelia whom I met through mixermixer or as I like to call it rent a friend… started walking with me. So we walk every Tuesday and Thursday, we started off with a half mile in a local park with trail and now up to nearly 6 miles most days… Shelia is my good twin, born on the same day as me but here in the states.. A guy stopped us last time and asked us were we sisters.. the hair in a pony tail, glasses and ample busoms have us looking alike.

Its great doing it with a friend as you just chat away and the time flies by. We normally stop at hobees a very cool california restaurant that serves really healthy food . Its great because hard to make bad food choices there. Nearly everything is healthy, well apart from the HUGE as your head coffee cake but thankfully thats not a danger food for me, I couldnt care less if all the cake in world vanished… But it does taste good.

On top of the walking, we now do yoga myself and Jan on Mondays. We started two weeks ago. Its brilliant. The teacher is so good at showing us how to breathe properly and we felt so jazzed up leaving. Of course we were so so sore when we woke up next day. We did such poses as downward dog … now downward dog is a very common yoga pose, you make a V facing downwards on the floor so you are supported by hands and feet .. graceful… and very zen like… However my downward dog never worked right. I discovered that i sweat like a river during this one from my palms and my soles. Not any other pose, just this one, so instead of a calm, zen pose i slide outwards on my hands and feet , straight flat onto my face… Not so Zen… like..

Here’s how DownDog being done properly

Heres the one I’m pretty good at.. the corpse pose where you lie down and relax..

And on top of that I started woman’s weight training on Mondays and Wednesdays. The class is just before the yoga on Mondays. Let me say that I was so fecking happy to get to Yoga and lie down after the weight training. The womens class is circuit training so you go from one machine to another, you do a minute and 15 seconds on each machine and then sit on a therapy ball and do stomach crunches then back to the machine and do another minute and 15 seconds and then onto next machine to work another muscle. Can I explain how long 75 seconds can seem when your muscle is screaming at you… Its a start though… So I teased Jan of course when he explained he was sore after Yoga after I also did an hour of weight training before hand. He goes running most days I walk though so hes a hell of lot fitter than me. Looking forward to when we go hiking and I can keep up with him. I was bench pressing but without any weights on it at all. thats all I can manage for now

October 8th I start with pilates and core resistance training… Trying to do a small bit at a time and make sure I dont do my back in. The classes are great though as they have certifed trainers who make sure you’re not doing something wrong or overdoing a position etc.

The nice thing is that a couple of weeks ago I went camping with Jan and we had a wonderful time and we actually hiked where, yes I was out of breath, and it was slow and easy going and yes it hurt going up the mountain but it felt great coming down as coming down I knew that I had done something I couldnt do before. We walked nearly 7-8 miles but half of that was up a mountain so should really count for more miles lol.

We on first night there before having ramen noodles and beef stew under the stars, in a beautiful night we went for a short walk and climbed the slippery rock- About 200 yards long and 100 yards wide, and tilted at a 30-degree angle, the rock formation earns its name from the underwater springs that seep through the ground and flow down the rock’s smooth surface. Now remember its 30 degree angle. Remember that. So only 200 yards long but its walking at a nearly 45 degree angle. I was panting my arse off getting up it. but I did it.

We got to the top after some serious heart panting and when we got to the top, Jan turned to me and said.. Now Breathe… And I did